The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the Respect for Marriage Act, which protects same-sex and interracial marriages at the federal level and requires states to recognize those marriages if they were legal at the time they were entered into. The legislation comes after far right Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas called for cases to overturn rulings that made constitutional contraception, same-sex intimacy, and same-sex marriage.
The final vote was 258-169. All Democrats voted yes, 39 Republicans joined the Democrats, but 169 Republicans voted no.
The bill now heads to President Joe Biden, who has said he will sign it into law.
Far right House Republicans who have built their political careers by attacking the LGBTQ community, voiced extremist attacks on the bill.
Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) broke down in tears as she begged her colleagues to vote against protecting the marriages of same-sex and interracial couples.
Hartzler, first elected to Congress in 2010, has been a spokesperson for a Missouri anti-LGBTQ organization, and worked to block passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.
Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) equated same-sex marriages with polygamy, bestiality, and “child marriage.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in one of her final acts in that role, gaveled in the vote.
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